ChickTech Research

ChickTech presents the following research about girls, women and their roles in science, technology, engineering and math:

High School

Girls perform just as well as boys in math classes and earn just as many math and science credits. They also earn slightly higher grades. (4)

Studies show that when a girl believes she can learn and become smarter in a STEM field, she is more likely to succeed in that field. (4)

Girls who are told that they are not good at math, score lower on math exams than boys. Girls who are told that they are just as capable as boys, perform just as well as boys on math exams. (4)

Exposing girls to successful female role models helps to counter negative stereotypes about women in science and technology. (4)

Increasing girls’ self-confidence in math and science, helps to increase the number of girls who aspire to careers in science and technology. (4)

Girls who take calculus in high school are three times as likely to major in a STEM field in college. (4)

Encouraging girls to work and play hands on with technology helps develop spatial skills and gives girls more confidence in their abilities. Those skills and confidence lead to more interest in STEM careers. (4)

Organized mentoring, role models, and socially oriented activities are effective methods for recruiting more girls into science and technology careers. (6)

College

Women make up just over half of all undergraduates, but only one fifth of engineering undergraduates. (2)

From 2004 to 2009, the number of male engineering graduates rose by 11% while women engineering graduates fell by 5.2%. (3)

In the past 20 years, the number of women earning computer science degrees has declined by almost 15%. (4)

In the mid-1980s, the number of female computer science graduates was nearly 40%, in 2009 the number was only 18%. (7)

Women in Tech

In 2010 women still earned just 77% of what their male counterparts earned. (8)